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Okay, I have compiled everyone's information who sent it in to me and passed it on to the person who will be contacting the authorities. Here's hoping they see how prolific this person was and is, and take action swiftly.

Ugh he was trying to trade me a Nintendo 3DS for some vampire counts models......Good thing i saw this thread -_-

Would anyone living in Australia be willing to make a quick call to GW Australia on Monday morning? I believe that is only 8 hours away or so AEST.

If they have any sense, they'll hold or cancel all orders placed with the awm534@live.com games workshop account and shipping to a Telford Close, Dora Creek, New South Whales address. They should be able to check and see how many different credit cards / Paypal accounts were used to place orders in the last week with that account and read "SCAM" all over it.

Games Workshop Australia Customer Service: + 61 (0)2 9829 6111
Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm AEST

So far, I have 10 people listed who have either bought this person items via that games-workshop.com account, or who have sent him items. However, it seems likely that some of the items ordered through GW's site have yet to ship, and could still be cancelled.

From what I can tell so far, at least 5 of these people ordered through games-workshop.com using the above account for him, and bought over $1750 worth of items! GW should be able to check that, and see that at least 5 different Paypal accounts were used, and see that something terribly fishy is going on and put a hold / cancel on the orders.

Also, anyone who bought him items via the games-workshop.com website with their Paypal account should immediately call Paypal! It's possible that Paypal will do the legwork on this, and get the orders that have yet to ship cancelled themselves. But there's a much better chance of this if more people call! At least one person already has, but more would help.

Glad my spider sense prevented me from trading with this dude.

Dude wanted to trade a Chaos Warhound.. I saw this thread and was like Oh hell no.

I assume he has seen this has anyone heard from him about this? I have not heard a peep from him

mondamoto wrote:
I assume he has seen this has anyone heard from him about this? I have not heard a peep from him

same, i replied to his latest PM telling him due to this thread I was no longer interested in trading for anything

mondamoto wrote:
I assume he has seen this has anyone heard from him about this? I have not heard a peep from him

His account has been permanently suspended, so any contact would need to go through his email address, which he gave out freely to anyone and everyone to order through GW for him, so I see no reason why it can't be posted here: awm534@live.com

As stated above, if you bought things for his games-workshop.com account using the above email address to ship directly to him, please call Paypal and Games Workshop ASAP to hold/cancel the payment, and the shipment!

I'd posted the GW Aus phone number above, but on Monday morning I would think that the half dozen people who so far have come forward saying they paid for items for him in this manner, should be calling GW as soon as they open on Monday morning. And also calling Paypal today, if they take calls on the weekends.

Your best protection is your own proactiveness in this situation! The user in Australia who is going to the police may get him charged / arrested, but it's doubtful you'd get models back that already shipped halfway across the world. So try to cancel the payment / shipment through Paypal / GW before that happens!

mondamoto wrote:
I assume he has seen this has anyone heard from him about this? I have not heard a peep from him

yeah about 10 hours after this was posted he pm'd me asking me to pay him. I flatly refused and told him where to go...

Hi,

I'll start making the call 10 minutes to 9 in case the lines are already open. I'll let you know what happens.

 RiTides wrote:
Would anyone living in Australia be willing to make a quick call to GW Australia on Monday morning? I believe that is only 8 hours away or so AEST.

If they have any sense, they'll hold or cancel all orders placed with the awm534@live.com games workshop account and shipping to a Telford Close, Dora Creek, New South Whales address. They should be able to check and see how many different credit cards / Paypal accounts were used to place orders in the last week with that account and read "SCAM" all over it.

Games Workshop Australia Customer Service: + 61 (0)2 9829 6111
Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm AEST

So far, I have 10 people listed who have either bought this person items via that games-workshop.com account, or who have sent him items. However, it seems likely that some of the items ordered through GW's site have yet to ship, and could still be cancelled.

From what I can tell so far, at least 5 of these people ordered through games-workshop.com using the above account for him, and bought over $1750 worth of items! GW should be able to check that, and see that at least 5 different Paypal accounts were used, and see that something terribly fishy is going on and put a hold / cancel on the orders.

Also, anyone who bought him items via the games-workshop.com website with their Paypal account should immediately call Paypal! It's possible that Paypal will do the legwork on this, and get the orders that have yet to ship cancelled themselves. But there's a much better chance of this if more people call! At least one person already has, but more would help.

God i amazed this guy is still trying to make trades with people even know this thread is out.....

Also on the pay-pal front they will most likely help anyone the bugger scammed and press Criminal charges against him. As for games workshop i don't think they can give away exactly what was bought for a person over the phone or the amount of different cards used.

THERE IS a lovely little way around this though, go to a local games workshop if you are in the same country\area and they might be able to pull the account up on there computer screen for you to find everything ordered.

Edited by RiTides

Ok,

I made the call and spoke to a staff named Mitchelle and he said they will be investigating it and possibly put everything going to that address on hold.

He said for anyone that has put an order through to call them.

I will call back later to find out what's happening with the investigation.

Is there any precedent for how things caught in time are returned?
By that I mean, hypothetically if my stuff is found with them, is there any way I can get the scammer, the police, or the member helping out (and yes I'd pay for shipping and tip) to send my stuff back to me?

OK, I am really sorry I have been so quiet, only talking to a few people through PM at the moment as I didn't want to say anything on the web in public before I had everything collated and knew about the status of the orders at GW Australia.

I also managed to get through this morning (And also talked to Mitchelle )

They are most definitely putting everything in that address and order on hold and cancelling everything they can.

They cannot however deal with anything but your own case if you call (do call!). But they are taking this very seriously and for all the complaints leveled towards them, they are doing a great job early on a monday morning to deal with this.

I have been able to get my order totally cancelled as it wasn't accessed just yet. This is important as I am unsure what this actually means when I go to the police later today, still pretty sure it will be viewed as an attempt to defraud.

Thank you everyone for the collaboration on this matter. It escalated quickly and hopefully as few people as possible have been impacted. I will talk today about whether the police can intercept mail for stolen goods, but I imagine that is a long shot.

Most of all, I think we all should thank RiTides. He has been amazing through out this whole process. I cannot stress how proactive and engaged he has been with people and helped me in organizing this case to put before the police.

I will keep everyone informed as much as I am able, but please understand, this is now a legal matter and I might not be able to say much on the forums. I hope I will not need legal representation (but if I do... I might ask my wife to help out ;-)



I might go quiet for a while on this, most definitely until I have spoken to the police

Cheers,
Mak!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 IceRapture wrote:
Is there any precedent for how things caught in time are returned?
By that I mean, hypothetically if my stuff is found with them, is there any way I can get the scammer, the police, or the member helping out (and yes I'd pay for shipping and tip) to send my stuff back to me?

I will ask this exact thing.
if it is possible I will try and organize this for people as best as I can.

so its required i call the australian GW (the phone bill alone wouldn't be worth it from the USA) or would the GW in USA suffice?

herpetitus wrote:
so its required i call the australian GW (the phone bill alone wouldn't be worth it from the USA) or would the GW in USA suffice?

I have absolutely no idea. I assume whomever you put through the transaction with.
GW australia looks to be holding all of these orders at the moment, but I would contact anyone at GW and ask them what they can do.

They told me that the cancelation of the order will be done through GW UK, so you can call the US and see if they can do the same thing.

stevenitis and Makaleth, thanks for calling GW Aus!

For folks in the US, I had only suggested you call GW Aus if, because of the size of some of these payments, you would be out a lot if it got shipped. GW Aus is open now, whereas GW US won't be open for another 12 hours or so.

I do think at least one member is calling GW Aus from the US today, hopefully they will update here.

Makaleth, totally understandable if you can't update much while the police do their work. I think it should still be viewed as fraud even though the transaction was cancelled by the vendor- the person still was committing fraud and only through the company intervening was it stopped.

The people scammed are somewhat evenly split between those who shipped items, and those who bought things on the website... and at least a few website orders have already shipped (so, there is fraud there even if your order was able to be cancelled).

Let me know if you need anything else and best of luck with the authorities!

No problem, hopefully it can be dealt with today. Will post what I can later this afternoon.

I am the US guy who was going to call GW AUS(was typing this before RiTides posted lol)

I have also been working in the background with RiTides on this issue. I bought 1000 AUD worth of BA stuff on GW AUS's website on the promise of the following from LustrianLizard:
1 x Revenant Titan w/ Pulsars
1 x Scorpion Type II Heavy Grav Tank
1 x Cobra Type II Heavy Grav Tank
1 x Lynx w/ Sonic Lance
1 x Vampire Hunter
1 x Vampire Raider
1 x Wraithseer
1 x Shadow Spectre Phoenix Lord
1 x Shadow Spectre Exarch
25 x Shadow Spectres
10 x Corsairs
2 x Tyranid Harridans

(I think that's it. I usually keep forgetting at least one item on that list)

I also just called GW Australia and spoke with Mitchell (cool dude by the way and apparently the only one working Monday morning, poor guy). Anyway, as soon as I told him I was from the States and had a problem, he responded with "Is the problem's name Anthony Millner?" (Dunno if I can post this name, but since everyone here has been screwed over I suspect they all know it anyhow. If I am in the wrong RiTides, please PM me and I will edit it out). Anyway, the call took less than 2 minutes, had my 920 US Dollars worth of merch canceled and am now pretty happy. I suggest calling. If you have ATT, it is only like 3.69 / minute which isn't bad for a 2 minute phone call.

So yes, I suggest you call if you can, have the order number if at all possible (it was how I was done so fast). And Mitchell said GW takes stuff like this very seriously and has put on hold/canceled all the orders to that address and has already received numerous calls about this guy today. So, again. Call if you can. If not, call US GW or the GW in your country tomorrow when they open. Have as much info as possible if you don't have the order number. Also Mitchell said my Paypal should be fully refunded within 5 days.


EDIT:
My little brother: Rabid1903 just called as well and was successful (he is also currently in the USA). And he reports that Mitchell has stated that all orders to that guy are canceled (I'd still call JUST IN CASE!).

O wow, I just tried and his phone is on. Didn't wait till he picked up though. Not even sure what to say >.>

stevenitis wrote:
O wow, I just tried and his phone is on. Didn't wait till he picked up though. Not even sure what to say >.>

I can think of some choice words...

glad to see people are getting things taken care of

I can second Vaydarade's comment. I was going to stay quiet but given the circumstances I'll post.

Mine was 315 AUD worth of Blood Angels stuff in exchange for:
1 x Phantom Titan w/ Pulsars
1 x Wraithknight
10 x Wraithguard

I called down (to Mitchell go figure) and he was extremely helpful. Took less than 5 minutes and he told me everything that was being sent to that account had either been put on hold or cancelled.


A huge thank you to everyone on here for helping out on this. It's been a very tight summer and I can't afford to have $300 go to waste.

Excellent, guys! Thanks for updating here, too.

 rabid1903 wrote:

Took less than 5 minutes and he told me everything that was being sent to that account had either been put on hold or cancelled.

so everybody who has activity in link to his name will be refunded?

This is simply astounding! This guy has completely run a train over a lot of people here - or tried to, rather!

I'm shocked by this, it really is scary. Best of luck to you guys, I'd be hitting the roof over this.

 RiTides wrote:
Excellent, guys! Thanks for updating here, too.

big thanks to you though! You've helped out everyone so much. Cheers!

Bacon, thanks . I've done more work for less return before, so glad it has helped some folks!

herpetitus, for the amount you sent it may not be worth it, but if Waaaghpower logs on I think he should call and make sure his is cancelled.

Also, just a reminder to the thread to try to keep the thread clear for those involved if anyone is not involved (this has gone well so far, but there are still a number who shipped items and so will need some sort of police action to have any chance of recovery).

I am heading to the post office tomorrow hopefully I will be able to get the package intercepted and sent back to me

I had a thought about possibly getting it rerouted to a friendly in Australia. If the contact there would not mind and if I can get it transferred to you, would you be willing to accept it. I am just looking for a back up plan then letting him get it I rather see someone who got screwed by him getting the stuff over that slime.

Yes Big thanks to RiTides for this

Hi mate,

if you want, you can send it to me or Makaleth, as I am new here, I think you would be more comfortable with sending it to Makaleth if he agrees of course.

otherwise pm me and we can sort something out.

mondamoto wrote:
I am heading to the post office tomorrow hopefully I will be able to get the package intercepted and sent back to me

I had a thought about possibly getting it rerouted to a friendly in Australia. If the contact there would not mind and if I can get it transferred to you, would you be willing to accept it. I am just looking for a back up plan then letting him get it I rather see someone who got screwed by him getting the stuff over that slime.

Yes Big thanks to RiTides for this